Immunization Guidelines During COVID-19

The CDC has released updated guidelines for preventative health services for children and adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. These include guidance on providing immunizations to patients.

Children

The AAFP and AAP have joined the CDC in offering guidance on
maintaining childhood immunizations in the current pandemic. In order to
continue to immunize pediatric patients, practices should follow guidance
from the AAP on modifying clinic schedules and physical space. Recommendations
include:

Limit well visits to early morning and use the
remainder of the day for sick visits

Dedicate specific rooms for sick visits and well
visits. If a practice has multiple sites, use one location for well visits
only.

If a practice is unable to provide wells child visits for all patients in their practice, priority should be given to newborn care and vaccination of infants and young children through 24 months of age.

Adults

The American College of Physicians released a
statement on non-urgent in-person medical care on March 23. This statement
recommends the cancellation of elective and non-urgent procedures, and for
physicians to move patient care to telehealth services when possible. The CDC
recommends that adult immunizations be postponed except in two scenarios:

An in-person visit must be scheduled for some other reason and delivering preventative services during that visit will not increase risk.

An individual patient and their clinician assess that the benefit of the vaccine outweighs the risk of exposure to COVID-19.